I can't believe we're still having this discussion in 2009. This was my response to the same question a while back on the board.  I'll just copy and paste here.

"People need to quit worrying about shooting spikes...period.

If you have alot of spikes in your 1 1/2 year old age class (and especially if you have them older than that), then there are things you need to address before you ever consider shooting one.

What is your carrying capacity?  What is your population?  What is your average recruitment rate?  How about your buck:doe ratio?  Tell me about the age structure of your deer herd?  How good is your native food supply?  What are you doing to supplement that native food supply?

Until you can do this, you can't know enough about your deer herd to make decisions on spikes.   And if you take care of all of these things and get them in order, you won't need to worry about spikes.

It's not that they'll go away.  Even on controlled, well fed populations, when drought hits, the 1 1/2 year old age class will sometimes produce high numbers of spikes.

Get your other issues in order and then if you want to start "culling", do so at 3 1/2 years old or older. 

I've told this several times, but I'll do it again here.  We've never had a large number of spikes in our 1.5 age class.  Matter of fact, never over 10%...until 2006.  We had a severe drought and for the first time we didn't have year round food plots and had a large number of deer on the ranch competing for a limited food supply in the form of protein pellets.  As a result, the 1.5 age class that year sported over 70% spikes.  But there was NO difference in my genetics.  Just in the balance of population to food supply. 

The following year, we had a great rain year and saw 1 spike in over 40 1.5 year old bucks.  Again, did my genetics just get better?  No. 

Now, an argument could be made for taking that one spike in a banner year.  He was the worst of the worst.  But why would I worry about him?  There are other factors that may have played in:  was he born late? Did he get sick, injured?  If my age structure is in order, I can give him time to prove himself."

I hope this helps.  There is NO reason in anything other than an incredibly intensively managed herd to shoot spikes...NONE!  The only reason that I would do it would be if my population model required me to shoot a certain number of bucks to reach my goals and I didn't feel like there was anything else in the middle-upper age classes that I was comfortable taking.  Even then, I would hate doing it.  People more times than not are just looking for an excuse to shoot a deer...shoot a doe or an older cull buck.

I don't like the fold down method because it seperates fawns from does when the fawns are very vulnerable.  It has certainly led to dead fawns at another ranch that I worked on that used them.

The best thing to do is just not raise the fence very far.  I'll post another shot tonight to illustrate.

Nice bucks and story! 

Sorry for the delayed update.

I just returned from a tour at the Tecomate Ranch.  Not much as far as rut activity there.  Dad said that he's been seeing some early activity here, but nothing intense.

I would think we're just a few days away since the full moon has just passed.

Kevin,

This was my response to the same question a while back on the board.  I'll just copy and paste here.

"People need to quit worrying about shooting spikes...period.

If you have alot of spikes in your 1 1/2 year old age class (and especially if you have them older than that), then there are things you need to address before you ever consider shooting one.

What is your carrying capacity?  What is your population?  What is your average recruitment rate?  How about your buck:doe ratio?  Tell me about the age structure of your deer herd?  How good is your native food supply?  What are you doing to supplement that native food supply?

Until you can do this, you can't know enough about your deer herd to make decisions on spikes.   And if you take care of all of these things and get them in order, you won't need to worry about spikes.

It's not that they'll go away.  Even on controlled, well fed populations, when drought hits, the 1 1/2 year old age class will sometimes produce high numbers of spikes.

Get your other issues in order and then if you want to start "culling", do so at 3 1/2 years old or older. 

I've told this several times, but I'll do it again here.  We've never had a large number of spikes in our 1.5 age class.  Matter of fact, never over 10%...until 2006.  We had a severe drought and for the first time we didn't have year round food plots and had a large number of deer on the ranch competing for a limited food supply in the form of protein pellets.  As a result, the 1.5 age class that year sported over 70% spikes.  But there was NO difference in my genetics.  Just in the balance of population to food supply. 

The following year, we had a great rain year and saw 1 spike in over 40 1.5 year old bucks.  Again, did my genetics just get better?  No. 

Now, an argument could be made for taking that one spike in a banner year.  He was the worst of the worst.  But why would I worry about him?  There are other factors that may have played in:  was he born late? Did he get sick, injured?  If my age structure is in order, I can give him time to prove himself."

Mark,

That was actually our second show.  The first is not of a giant...just an old, old management buck.  But it shows more of the ranch, some spot and stalk, and some of the bigger, but younger deer on the ranch that we had to not shoot (it's unfortunately why we have to have guides with every hunter).

Anyway, check it out if you get a chance.

I will post some pics of Dad's buck back from the taxidermist later though.  I also have a "recreation" shot that Tecomate did on a live deer that I'll post...it's pretty interesting.